Las Vegas Homes, Condos, Land and Commercial Real Estate Blog

Owner occupied home buyers in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson who wanted to finance their home had to pay 10%-15% more for their home than cash investors in order to have a chance at buying a bank owned home in the last 9 months. Banks would accept a $75,000 cash offer from an investor that is not contingent on appraisal and would close in a couple of weeks, over an offer from an owner occupier who wanted to finance his/her home for $85,000 and wanted to close escrow in 45 days.

I didn’t blame the banks a bit either, since Murphy’s Law rules apply and things that should not be there to go wrong appear from nowhere and kill the deal during the escrow.

One good example is stupid appraisals and I have seen many. On one of my deals the inept appraiser actually picked a zero lot home(homes that are separated by 5 feet from the neighboring home) that was backing to the highway as a comp for my listing which had a large yard and unequalled views of Las Vegas. This appraiser who had over a decade of experience doing appraisals in Las Vegas could not answer the following question from me. “In what universe is this zero lot home a comp for my listing?” However the bank relies on the same stupid appraisal and the deal nearly got killed. Stuff happens.

The exception to this rule was Fannie Mae. They started giving owner occupiers the “First Look” at their foreclosures. This means that investors could not bid on Fannie Mae properties for the first 15 days.  Additionally, Fannie Mae started to crack down on their REO agents. The head of Fannie Mae in Las Vegas has given us his cell phone number and e-mail so if we don’t get an acknowledgment for the receipt of our offer and quick action on good offers, we could contact him directly and this is a very refreshing change from the wild, wild west of foreclosures from other banks.

At any rate beginning May 3, Fannie Mae will extend the waiting time investors in Nevada must wait before offering a bid on an REO property from 15 days to 30. If the home doesn’t sell, they will withdraw it and re-list it for 15 days. This will effectively remove Fannie Mae owned homes from the homes that are available for investors to bid on.

Since more than 60% of homes that were listed in Las Vegas sold in less than 30 days and 40% have been bought with cash; Fannie Mae’s action should help increase the price for bank owned investor homes and level the playing field for owner occupied buyers in Las Vegas.

All-cash, owner-occupant purchases will require certification as an addition to the Fannie Mae purchase addendum.

How much effect will Fannie Mae’s action will have on the real estate market in Las Vegas at this time is unknown as we only have about 1234 bank owned homes that have not gone under contract yet. And 1234 bank owned homes have negligible effect in our current market as many are priced like regular sales.